Kanpai

That Was The Year That Was

2007 was a pretty good year for the Japanese game industry. Okay, it was no 1990, but it easily surpassed the nervy, transitional twelve months of 2006. Nintendo's Wii enjoyed its first full year in Japan, benefiting hugely from incessant TV advertising and frequent pop cultural references in completely non-game-related TV and radio program settings.

I remember an episode of Downtown's excellent "Lincoln" comedy hour in which the cast of comedians played Wii Sports in the studio while one of their number got to celebrate his birthday by dancing with a 48-member girl group in front of a crowd of raving otaku. The subliminal-but-probably-unintentional message, as I got it, was that normal Japanese people were playing Wii in the summer of 2007 but the Akihabara crowd were still doing their thing; the mainstream and the underground could coexist peacefully.

Perhaps I read too much into such things, but the point is: Wii has had a massive impact on Japanese life in 2007. As I've stated before in this column, in Japan Wii is becoming the true realization of Nintendo's original Family Computer vision. (My in-laws tacitly concur by showing an interest in Wii games even though they humbly describe themselves as "an analog family.")

Square Enix enjoyed a fruitful 2007, with its celebration of Final Fantasy's 20th anniversary yielding a number of hit PSP and DS games.

Little wonder, then, that the Wii topped Nikkei Trendy's chart of the hit products of 2007 (an award taken by the DS in 2006), with the Japanese business journal describing the Wii as having "completely changed the way videogame machines are used in the home" -- although its position as Japan's most popular home console of the moment is now under threat from Sony's resurgent PlayStation 3.

Until November, there appeared to be little interest here in what was then the expensive and rumble-free PS3, but with the launch of a cheaper 40GB hardware option bundled with a Dual Shock 3 controller -- and, crucially, on the back of an excellent TV marketing campaign (spot the trend?) -- the PS3 has found the momentum needed to overtake the Wii, in terms of consoles sold each week, since what was effectively a relaunch of the format.

There was a similar swing to the Japanese handheld scene in 2007, with the DS Lite again trouncing its competition (namely, the PSP) until Sony masterminded another successful product relaunch with the PSP-2000 (aka the Slim & Lite). It was timed perfectly to coincide with the September release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, which surprisingly managed to fulfil both its creative and commercial promise.

Of course Monster Hunter Portable 2nd did even better business earlier in the year, shifting well over a million copies to make it the most successful PSP game in Japan to date, and that was before the hardware revision had even been announced. But after a string of big hits from Square Enix -- with Crisis Core and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions to be followed by Star Ocean: First Departure before the end of the year -- the new PSP has a solid platform on which to build in 2008. The DS Lite isn't losing any of its momentum, though, and continues to sell more than 100,000 units each week.

Really, most formats are enjoying a good time of it in Japan, and there are certain hits lined up for every console over the next few months -- Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on the PS3, Star Ocean: First Departure on the PSP, Dragon Quest IX on the DS, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii. Even the Xbox 360, although not performing as well as Nintendo and Sony platforms, will be buoyed by the mid-December release of Lost Odyssey, which is already impressing in TV commercials.

Happily, 2007 isn't over just yet. Before the end of the year Japan will get No More Heroes, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, and the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV, to name-check just a few highlights. And I'm already enjoying (actually, "enjoying" is the wrong word; "experiencing") the non-game phenomenon that is Wii Fit. Japanese gamers really have nothing to complain about, but here's to an even better year of games in 2008!